There are many software applications capable of attaching copies of files to electronic mails (or e-mails). Examples of such software systems include, but are not limited to, electronic mail systems, database systems, as well as collaborative systems such as Lotus Notes™ (Lotus Notes is a registered trademark of Lotus Development Corporation). Anything that can appear as a file somewhere in hard disk folders can be included as an attachment to an e-mail. Attachments can be made of images, word-processing documents, database files, spreadsheets, audio files, executable programs, etc.
Once a file is attached to an e-mail, the whole can be transmitted over a communications network (e.g., the Internet) to other computer systems. Multiple users can access the attached file using suitable collaborative software, typically over a computer communications network. Using conventional software, files attached to e-mails can be operated in several ways. For example, on Lotus Notes™ an attached file can be viewed with a file viewer, launched or processed by another application, or detached from the e-mail and stored to process the file locally or, as in the case of a program file, to be executed.
To detach a file from an e-mail and create a local copy of the attached file, the user typically (as in Lotus Notes™), highlights the file to be detached, selects a detach option, and interacts with a “file save” interface by means of which the user must specify a filename for the local copy of the attached file and the location (i.e., the folder or directory path) to which the file must be detached. This process can be tedious for the user, mainly when multiple files are to be detached. Although some systems enable multiple attachments to be detached simultaneously, each of the attachments must be detached to the same directory despite the type of attached file or the intended use of the attached file. Additionally, conventional systems first query the user as to where the user would like the attached files to be detached.
To illustrate the need for improving current systems and methods for attaching and detaching files to and from e-mails, one may consider the scenario of creating a repository of files detached from e-mail on a personal computing system. In the course of one year, hundreds of files may be typically received by a user, included on attachments of e-mail received from many different senders. Files received by the user can be of all types (i.e., images, pictures, maps, presentation materials, word-processing documents, database files, spreadsheets, MP3 or video files, executable programs, and so) and can be related to quite different categories, subjects, topics or sub-topics (e.g., family pictures, a project documentation, folk music, medieval art, and so). Those files are usually detached by the user, and stored on folders, from where occasionally, they may be accessed by the user, reviewed and attached to new documents, or to outgoing e-mail, being redistributed to many people.
When a user needs to detach a file from an e-mail, if the file is related to a new topic, for which there is not yet a specific folder created beforehand to which save the file, the user is faced with the tasks of identifying and assigning a new category (and sometimes, one or more sub-categories) to the received file, of naming the new category (and other sub-categories, if defined), and then of creating the corresponding directory (and other required sub-directories) on the file system of the user's computer before saving the attached file in the corresponding folder.
At any time, the user should be assisted in the selection of the final directory/folder where to attach or detach those files. Moreover, when a user receives files attached to e-mails, it would be of the utmost importance for the user to automate the process of having those files saved in e-mails related folders.
Then, there is a need for automating the process for saving files detached from e-mails to locations related to the saving locations of the corresponding e-mails.
More generally, a need has arisen for a system and method for automating the process of attaching and detaching file attachments to/from e-mails.